BAZA GURNEY I, Hamsay, 
Gurney’s Cuckoo-Falcon. 
Baza reimvctrcUi (nec Miill. & Schl.), Tristram, Ibis, 1882, pp. 133, 141. 
Baza gurneyi, Ramsay, Journ. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 130 Q883^. — Salvad. Orn. di Papuasia e delle Moluccbe, iii. 
App., p. 506 (1882). — Grant, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1888, p. 188. 
Fou a considerable time tlie Cuckoo-Falcon of the Solomon Islands was supposed to be specifically the 
same as B. rebnvardti, a species of somewhat extended distribution in Papuasia, as it occurs over the 
greater part of New Guinea and Salwati, as well as in the islands of Mysol, Misori, Ceram, Amboina, 
and the Ke and Aru groups. The history of the separation of the Solomon-Island bird is not very 
clear, hut appears to be somewhat as follows : — In 1880 Mr. E. P. Ramsay described Mr. Cockerell’s 
collections from the Solomon group, and recorded an example of a Baza from “ Cape Pitt,” which 
he said agreed exactly with Port-Moreshy specimens. Later, in 1882, he described the species from 
the Solomon Archipelago Baza gurneyi, '•m A he observes : — “When I first notified B. reinioardti from 
the Solomon Islands, I was under the impression I had a veritable Solomon-Island bird before me. It 
now turns out that such was not the case ; hence the mistake.” Mr. Ramsay omits to tell us tvhere 
the supposed “Cape Pitt ” specimen really came from after all, and as he gives the localities for his 
Baza gurneyi as “ Ugi ” {Ben. G. Brown) and “Cape Pitt” (Cockerell), it will he seen that he 
has left the subject in a state of considerable uncertainty. What seems certain is that B. gurneyi is 
confined to the Solomons, one of Lieut. Richards’s skins from Russell Island being now in the British 
iMuseum (cf. Tristram, 1. c.), and the same institution has recently received t\vo specimens collected 
by Mr. C. M. AVoodford in Guadalcanal-; the two last-named loealities can he depended upon, as 
well as that of the island of Ugi. 
When writing his account of Baza reinwardtl for his work on Pa])uan ornithology. Count Salvador! 
remarks on a specimen collected by the Rev. G. Brown, hut to which no locality was attached. This 
sjteciraen is in the Tweeddale collection, and agrees thoroughly with a New-Ireland specimen also 
obtained by Mr. Brown and now in the British Museum, so that there can he little doubt as to tl<e 
habitat of New Ireland being correct for the first specimen, as suggested by Count Salvador!. Both 
these individuals likewise agree with the specimen described and figured in the present work, which 
is a male from New Britain, collected by the late Dr. Kleinschmidt. The truth is that B. gurneyi 
is only an Insular form of Papuan B. reinioardti, distinguished by its light under surface, broader 
terminal black hand to the tail, and almost pure white under wing-coverts. The birds from New Britain 
and New Ireland are, again, a paler edition of B. gurneyi, with the same light under surface and white 
under wing-coverts, hut still further distinguished by the light grey bars of the under surface. They 
are quite as worthy of a name as B. gurneyi ; and as the Germans have called these islands by the title 
of the Bismarck Archijtelago, we will attach the name of the great Chancellor to the Cuckoo-Falcon 
of that locality, as we fully believe it to he distinct. In the event of our surmise proving correct, the 
Plate of the present work must he referred to Baza bisniarckii. 
The figure in the Plate is of the natural size and is drawn from the specimen mentioned above. 
[R. B. S.] 
